


Lilac Sky

by porcupinegoldstein



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, F/M, The Enchanted Forest, skin deep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 19:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4758959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/porcupinegoldstein/pseuds/porcupinegoldstein
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is basically the episode of Skin Deep but, I added an element where the whole world is divided by colours, and each person is a different colour. Belle is a blue and Rumpelstiltskin is a red. They were never meant to meet until, he promised to keep her family safe if he came with her. </p><p>A lot of the dialogue comes from the episode 'Skin Deep'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lilac Sky

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this came from the song 'Colors' by Halsey

The whole world was filled with colour. Reds, blues, greens and yellows. The whole world all divided by what color that they were born as. Each person wore a band that had their colour, and no two colours were supposed to be together. Of course there were some colours that weren’t spoken of. The greys. The ones that were devoid of colour and had no more purpose in their life. The Empties people called them. The people that no longer had their band. Belle had read about the people that had gone grey. The Queen being one of those people, and the ogres as well if they even counted as people. Belle was a blue, as was her father and her betrothed Gaston. She was more of a bright blue, her band matching her ever curious eyes whereas, Gaston was a royal blue to match his dashing looks and his braveness. Her father was a deep blue, and her mother had been a lighter blue. The only people that Belle had left were her father and Gaston. That was until her family needed protection from the Ogre Wars and the only person that they could call on was the The Dark One. Better known as Rumpelstiltskin. A dark, deep red who surprised everyone when he didn’t turn grey when he got so much power and lived alone. Upon entering Belle and her family’s palace the deal that he had proposed meant for Belle to go with him. Rather than stay back home with her family. Her father and Gaston had been hesitant, not letting her leave with such a man. Especially since he was a red. Different colours were not supposed to interact with each other. After all Rumpelstiltskin was not an ordinary man. Everything about him was different. His skin was almost crocodile like, which had earned him a nickname from a pirate long ago. Nobody trusted him in the Enchanted Forest. Despite all of this and headstrong as she was, Belle ignored her father’s words and left with Rumpelstiltskin after he promised to keep her family and her friends safe. 

Once they reached his castle, Belle took everything in. Her eyes darted around everywhere. She had been allowed to take some luxuries, such as her clothes and some books. Although she was eager to explore the castle a little more and hope to be able to find hidden secrets.  
“Where are you taking me?” Belle questioned him curiously.  
“Let’s call it your room,” he answered her, a small smile painted on his face as her led her through the halls. He came to an old wooden door and opened it, revealing a small room with a stone floor, stone walls and only one window.  
“My room?” Belle shot him a glance of disbelief.  
“Well, it sounds so much better than dungeon,” he spoke and he shoved her into the room with a hard push, locking the door to the room.  
“No, you can’t just leave me in here!” Belle yelled from in the room, banging on the door. “Hello?!”  
She soon gave up with trying to get his attention, walking to the window to look out at the scenery. All that she could see was forest. There were no lights, nothing to show any signs of civilisation. She wasn’t going to give up hope though, and she felt more blue than she ever had before. It didn’t take her long however, to start missing her family. Moving away from the window, she lay down on the floor and just let tears start to fall. Until she was loudly sobbing, and unable to control the tears. She longed to see her family again. She didn’t like to have to lie on a stone floor with no support. This went on for a few nights. 

During her stay, Belle had seen many things. Read many books and experienced many colours as well. She had witnessed Rumple going after a Green that had stolen from him. He tortured the poor man, green blood staining the floor and she had tried to help. She let the thief escape but, then the Dark One forced her to come with her so she could watch him kill the Green. It didn’t turn out that way though. He let the thief go and had earned a hug from Belle. Sweet, intelligent, kind Belle. The complete opposite of what he was. Rumpelstiltskin was nothing more than a coward. A coward that had run away from the Ogre Wars and lost both his wife and his son. Losing his wife to another red. A stronger red who he now hated. A man he wanted to get revenge on. What he felt about Belle though, was completely different. Belle was special. He admired her and her courage. He admired that a blue could stand to be in the same room as a red. Especially a red like him. The kind of red that was the same as red blood. He was glad that she was with him though. It felt nice to have someone there that was a small glint of light in his dark and lonely life. 

 

A few days passed, and Belle was allowed more of a free roam of the castle now. He had built her a library for when she wasn’t working and she was growing to like him more and more each day. She still had to do all of his work and she did accidentally chip one of his cups on the first days. It had become a quick favourite of his though she had noticed. She wondered to herself all the time what he might think of her. As he sat and spun on his spinning wheel, Belle was up a ladder trying to open some of the curtains. She let her gaze move over to him and narrowed her eyes slightly at him spinning.  
“Why do you spin so much?” she asked him, curiosity taking over her voice and her eyes. When he looked over at her questionably she looked away. “Sorry it’s just, you’ve spun more straw into gold than you could ever spend.”  
“I like to watch the wheel,” he told her, letting it spin. “It helps me forget.”  
“Forget what?”  
“I guess it worked,” he laughed, earning a laugh from her in return. That was the first time that anyone had ever laughed at one of his jokes or quips before. He stood up noticing what she was doing, and came to stand by the ladder. “What are you doing?”  
“Opening these. It’s almost Spring, we should let some light in here,” she told him tugging at the curtains. “What did you do? Nail them down?”  
“Well, yes,” he answered her as if it was the answer to the most obvious thing. She scoffed, and started to tug harder at the curtains until she managed to get one down, but she came down with them. She fell right into his arms, and just looked at him before he set her back down.  
“Oh thank you,” she smiled over at him. Every time that they touched, she felt like she was seeing purple.  
“It’s no matter.”  
“I’ll uh- put the curtains back up.”  
“Oh there’s no need. I’ll get used to it,” he told her. 

The pair of them sat down on his dining room table and Belle looked over to him.  
“Why did you want me here?”  
“The place was filthy.”  
“I think that you were lonely,” she told him, her shoulder brushing against his. There is was. Purple again. “I mean, any man would be lonely.”  
“I’m not a man,” he simply stated which only caused Belle to try to think of another conversation she could start with the red man.  
“So I’ve had uh- a couple of months to look around, you know. And upstairs, there’s clothing. It’s small. As if for a child? Was it yours or was there a son?” She asked him, eyebrow quirking up.  
“There was. There was a son, but I lost him. As I did his mother.”  
“I’m sorry. You’re not grey though. So you must still have some hope, and you were a man once. An ordinary man,” she noted but, when he didn’t respond she just gave a small sigh. “If I’m not going to know another human being for the rest of my life. Can’t I at least know you?”  
“Perhaps- perhaps you just want to know the monster’s weaknesses,” he told her, pointing a finger at her, to which she returned with a small smile and shook her head.  
“You’re not a monster,” she told him. “You think that you’re uglier than you are. That’s why you cover up all of the mirrors. Isn’t it? Hm?” She gave him a pointed look, expecting an answer when there was a knock at the door. 

 

Rumpelstiltskin came to the door opening it, surprised to see Belle’s betrothed Gaston standing there with a sword drawn.  
“I am Sir Gaston. And you beast have taken-” he was cut off short by Rumple snapping his fingers and turning Gaston into a lilac rose.  
He returned to the dining room, hand behind his back and smiled at Belle.  
“Who was that?” she asked him curiously, bright blue eyes shining in the new light.  
“Just an old woman selling flowers,” he told her producing the rose from behind his back. “Here- if you’ll have it.” He held out the lilac rose for her, watching the smile on her face grow.  
“Why thank you,” she answered him, curtseying with a small giggle. She turned and searched for a vase to put the rose in, while he watched her.  
“You had a life Belle. Before....this,” he gestured to the room. “Friends. Family. What made you choose to come here with me?” he asked her, wanting to know her answer.  
“Heroism. Sacrifice,” she started, placing the rose in the vase and setting it down on the table. “You know, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for women in this land to… To show what they can do. To see the world, to be heroes. So, when you arrived, that was my chance. I always wanted to be brave. I figured, do the brave thing, and bravery would follow,” she told him. Most of her wanting to be a hero had come from the books that she had read. She wanted to be a hero like the people in her books.  
“And is it everything you hoped?” He raised an eyebrow.  
“Well, I did want to see the world. That part didn’t really work out. Though I did save my village,” she confessed, her gaze falling to the floor.  
“And what about your- betrothed?” he inquired, hoping for a good answer seeing as he was now sitting on the dining room table as a rose.  
“It was an arranged marriage,” she gave a small shrug. “Honestly, I never cared much for Gaston. To me, love is layered, love is a mystery to be uncovered,” she smiled at him. “I could never marry someone like Gaston. He’s a royal blue, and I’m a bright blue,” she showed him the band around her wrist. “But um- you were going to tell me about your son,” she urged him.  
“I’ll tell you what,” he started, going off of subject. “I’ll make you a deal. Go to town and fetch me some straw. When you return, I’ll share my tale,” he told her.  
“Town?” Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. “You trust me to come back?”  
“Oh no- I expect that I’ll never see you again.” 

On Belle’s journey, she had not been expecting to encounter the Queen. Of course she had no idea that it was the Queen and she started to talk about Rumple. Started to say that there was darkness in him, that had overtaken him. The Queen had told her that it sounded like a curse and that any curse could be broken by true love’s kiss. Of course Belle wasn’t convinced at first. Until the Queen told her that if he let her go then he must love her. A kiss would be all that it took for Rumpelstiltskin to be a man again, and Belle was determined for her kiss to be one that was born from true love. She smiled, and headed back to the estate with the straw he had asked for in a basket. When Belle got back into the estate and in the dining room, she saw the man over by his spinning wheel.  
“Oh you’re back already,” he noted. “Good. I was almost out of straw,” he told her. She smiled and came over to him, squeezing his shoulders.  
“Hm- come on you’re happy that I’m back,” she told him with a smile on her face, brighter than her blue band or eyes.  
“I’m not unhappy.”  
“And uh- you promised me a story,” she pointed out.  
“Did I?” he looked, to her as she sat down on the stool next to him.  
“Mmhm, tell me about your son,” she urged him, her eyes looking up at him as he tried not to get lost in them.  
“I lost him. There’s nothing more to tell really,” he told her, trying to just shrug it off.  
“And since then, you’ve loved no one. And no one has loved you.”  
“Why did you come back?”  
“I wasn’t going to. Then, something changed my mind,” she told him leaning up and placing a kiss against his lips, her eyes closing as she did so. It was almost like an explosion of purple, everything in her mind were different shades of the colour. There was dark purple grass, light purple trees and a beautiful lilac sky. When Belle opened her eyes she couldn’t help but smile at what she was faced with. The curse was breaking. He was turning back into a man and the band he wore was now purple as was hers.  
“What’s happening?” he asked her.  
“Kiss me again, it’s working,” she told him excitedly.  
“What is?”  
“Any curse can be broken-” she started but, was cut off by him standing up and reverting back, his skin turning back to the crocodile texture and his band turning back to the blood red.  
“Who told you that? Who knows that?” he yelled at her.  
“I don’t know. She- she-”  
“She!” He made his way over to the mirror, ripping the sheet off and started yelling about how Belle was now turned against him but, Belle was confused, looking over at him with worry in her eyes.  
“Who are you talking to?” she asked him desperately.  
“The Queen! Your friend the Queen!” he told her.  
“The Queen?” Belle shook her head, obviously confused.  
“ I knew this was a trick. I knew you could never care for me. Oh, yeah! You’re working for her. Or is this all you? Is this you being the hero and killing the beast?”  
“It was working,” she pleaded.   
“Shut up!”  
“This means it’s true love!”  
“Shut the Hell up!”  
“Why wont you believe me?” she asked him, shaking her head ,desperate for him to see that it was true.  
“Because no one- no one could ever love me!” He grabbed her, taking her back to her stone walled room and threw her in, once again locking the door behind him. 

Hours passed and Belle was just sat by the wall until she heard the door open and Rumpelstiltskin walked in. He didn’t even look at her.  
“So what are you going to do to me?” she asked him, thinking that he was going to hurt her.  
“Go,” he simply stated.  
“Go?”  
“I don’t want you anymore dearie.”  
Belle started to walk towards the cell door, but came back and stood in front of the man that had turned her world purple.  
“You were freeing yourself! You could have had happiness if you just believed that someone could want you. Even if was a blue like me.”  
“That’s a lie.”  
“You’re a coward Rumpelstiltskin! And no matter how thick you make your skin, that doesn’t change.”  
“I’m not a coward dearie. It’s quite simple. My power and my colour means more to me than you do.”  
“No. No it doesn’t. You just don’t think that anyone could ever love you but, you’re a red and you liked me because I was blue. Then when I kissed you, I was a lilac sky and then you decided that purple just wasn’t for you. So, I will leave. And I’ll leave you all alone in here, and all that you’ll have is an empty heart, and a chipped cup.” She turned and left after that. To go back to her village. Back to her family. Where she thought that she belonged and left him alone, to wallow in the grey that he had become. 


End file.
